It’s time to wake up, smell the sales potential and ruminate about the following.

Will Nova Scotia’s fast-food consumers eventually be affected by Tuesday’s planned $12.5-billion acquisition of Tim Hortons by Burger King Worldwide, an alliance that will see 18,000 outlets in 100 countries and $23 billion in annual revenue?

Before that query is addressed, Ottawa will have to have its say on whether the food services amalgamation is kosher.

Under federal legislation, the Competition Bureau has the responsibility to review mergers “to determine whether they are likely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition,” a bureau official said.

“I can confirm that the bureau will review Burger King’s proposed acquisition of Tim Hortons,” Melanie Beauchesne said in an email.

“In general, the bureau must be given advance notice of proposed transactions when the assets in Canada or revenues of the target firm generated in or from Canada exceed $82 million, and when the combined Canadian assets or revenues of the parties and their respective affiliates in, from or into Canada exceed $400 million.”

The cross-border marriage, if blessed by the bureau, will make the merged fast-food company the third-largest in the marketplace.

Berkshire Hathaway, American Warren Buffett’s investment company, will put $3 billion into the proposed deal but won’t take part in the business. Burger King and Tim Hortons are to be owned by an unnamed Ontario-based parent firm while keeping their respective head offices in Miami, Fla., and Oakville, Ont.

Ken Wong, a marketing professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., said the bureau must review the deal because it is mandated to do so. But he doesn’t foresee any problems.

“They’re not the largest competitor in the market place,” said Wong, whose area of expertise includes advertising, branding and consumer behaviour. “You’re talking about two firms which previously were not in the top three, just becoming now the third.”

As for consumers in this province and elsewhere, it should be business as usual, he said. But don’t be surprised if you see at least one Tim Hortons product in Burger King outlets in the future.

“I would suspect — there’s no confirmation on this yet — you’re going to start to see Tim Hortons coffee available in Burger Kings,” Wong said.

What about the other way around?

“Never,” Wong said.

He said Burger King and Tim Hortons are “very different businesses selling to very different segments of the market.”

The product line at Burger King appeals to many customers in the southern United States, folks with cultural or familial ties to Mexico and Latin America, Wong said.

“As you might expect, then, there’s a certain accommodation made to a Latino taste and food preferences. You’re not going to see that up north here.”